Driving on Vacation: Your Experiences Austin

While it's lovely to travel to a big city and walk around to see the sights, it's more likely that at some point you'll have to take a car around. Whether it's your own car or a rental, trying to read a map and make it to your destination can be difficult when you're unfamiliar with the area...

Have you ever gotten lost on vacation, to either adventurous or disastrous results? Or, like us, have you ever accidentally gone the wrong way on a one-way street, two times in a row? On the other hand, have you ever gotten lost or taken a wrong turn and discovered something surprising? Tell us about your vacation driving stories!

(Image: Rachael Grad and Flickr member [stevec77] licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (11)

There are times when I don't look forward to driving on vacation like:

anytime I have to drive on the wrong (left) side of the road.

anytime I have to drive in Bilbao.

driving in the suburbs surrounding KC without a gps.

But the payoff of having a car in these same places is great. Grand Cayman is small but there really isn't any public trans, taxis are expensive and my wife isn't really comfortable with hitchhiking. With a car, we can go to the grocery store, criss-cross the island and go to some of the jerk shacks and restaurants that are inland away from the tourist spots. But I have to drive on the left!!!!

Having a car made traversing Basque country pretty efficient but I do not wish driving in Bilbao on my worst enemy. We did take a "wrong" turn and ended up in a neighborhood with lots of graffiti (not of the decorative type) and circling the labyrinth of streets for a long time to find our hostel and parking.

I was on vacation in the Dominican Republic (while pregnant)...I love DR, but driving was a NIGHTMARE :(....people routinely drive against traffic in the unofficial 'breakdown lane' on the highway, some of the roads had ZERO lights at night, one time we accidentally drove the wrong way on a highway off-ramp that we thought was the on-ramp because there was no sign telling us don't enter and it was almost totally dark out so we couldn't see the guy heading towards us with no lights on (I almost pissed my pants!) , and later on that week we got pulled over because our friend's car didn't have a sticker that was required under some 'newly passed law' (a law we're pretty sure never existed in the first place). The cop tried to take the car and leave us stranded. We paid him off with $50.

Ahhhh...what an adventure. lol

Art, I agree...a bad driving experience is still better than not having a car/transportation at all. I like to really explore and get away from the touristy areas to really get an authentic experience...even if an 'authentic experience' involves police bribery lol.

My boyfriend and I got lost in Quebec City this past weekend... first, I accidently took us to Charlesbourg with the GPS rather than Quebec City (my fault... I admit it. Be careful what address you put in). Once we turned around and went back, there were lots of one way streets and narrow streets and cobblestone "no cars allowed" streets, and the road our B&B was supposed to be on ended before it got to the address! We were puzzled. The GPS was no help here, it didn't know any streets in Vieux Quebec at all. Luckly we both speak french so we stopped and bought a map - after 2 hours only a minor amount of bickering we finally decided to park the car and walk until we found our way. We eventually did (yay us!).

Prague
Heaven for pedestrians. Trams (Only needed them once) Subway (never). But do wear THICK soft soled shoes - the sidewalks and streets are all paved with uneven cobblestones. And then curse the day that you chose to live in suburbia.
We drove around southern Bohemia and Moravia. The small towns are dream like, and unlike the people in Prague, who are tired of the hoards of tourists, the Czechs are polite and funny under their dour appearence.
Almost all roads, including international highways full of trucks, are just 2 lanes, with no shoulder, and drainage ditches just where the paving ends. While they are well maintained, you sometimes have to share them with pedestrians & bicycles. But it's OK - the Czechs are polite and consideratebehind the wheel as well.

It's always wonderful to have a vehicle while on vacation. Last vacation we learned a huge lesson - DO NOT under any circumstance rely completely on your GPS system. It does indeed lie to you at times - LOL. Thank goodness for the road map we was able to get.

GPS is an invaluable tool. Since acquiring mine, I have used in it in Austin, LA, Atlanta and Tuscany. While not always perfect, it is a HUGE improvement over having to read a map (especially if you are driving alone).

When I was in the US working for a while, I met up with my family in LA. They were flying from Sydney, me from Miami. Before leaving, I checked the route from the airport on the map, and worked out which expressway and exits to take to get to my hotel, i.e. I looked on the internet, but did not have a map.

When I got to LA three hours late - middle of the night, two hour wait for the hire car with no GPS available and no street atlas, and now about 2 am - I drove off, only to find the exit I needed to take was closed for roadworks. Ack!

I headed off the next exit in what was the direction more or less but really found myself lost. As a foreigner not knowing LA, I figured that getting lost in an unknown neighbourhood was not a good idea.

Finally I stopped at a 7-11 store and bought a street directory. Amazingly I was only 100 yards from my hotel! My internal GPS was almost correct! Amazing!

When I was 15, on a road trip to visit family in St. Louis. I had my drivers permit, so this was the first time I was helping drive on a long road trip. My mom was asleep in the back & my sister was supposed to be navigating, but she fell asleep and I went the wrong way on a highway for 2 hours in Arkansas. It's been 10 years and we all still remember that.

We finally got to St. Louis at 2 in the morning and it's raining cats and dogs. My mom was driving and at one point we had to go on this road that wound around this cliff or something and I was so afraid we were going to drive off it in the rain! Keep in mind, I'm from Houston which has no hills whatsoever, so I was seriously freaked out. My mom is from the area though, so she was ok, but I just lay down and prayed, I was so nervous!

On a different vacation with my dad, we stopped on the way to South Padre at the border & walked into Mexico. We took a bus to the market and got on the wrong one to go back to the bridge. The last stop was on a dirt road in a neighborhood and the driver made us get off and pointed down the road saying the bridge was that way.

We started walking and a Mexican guy pulled over and was like "You're lost huh?", lol, yeah obviously. He offered us a ride to the bridge and my dad accepted. My middle sis and I were looking at each other like "OMG!!". We were so scared he was going to kill us! It's already dangerous to take rides from strangers, but to do so in Mexico where people are often abducted or killed for organs, bad idea! I remember thinking about what I could use as a weapon if he tried to attack us. At one point he turned down an alley and I was thinking, "this is it, he's going to kill us now!". Luckily, he dropped us at the bridge as promised. Scary, but funny memory.

The alternator literally fell out of our camper onto a dirt road in the Bisti Badlands (it was as much fun as it sounded!)

Now, I live in Miami, which I've learned is death to GPS systems...roads don't go through, stores are supposedly miles away from where they really are, and it sometimes just sends you to the completely wrong place (sigh).

Renee - Completely agree with you on the GPS. Went to TN on vacation and it told us to turn right, which went off a freaking cliff. Luckily we have more intelligence than that. It has taken us in circles, told us to turn onto a one way street the wrong way, etc.